Copyright Canada

Promoting innovation by protecting user rights and the public domain

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

MPAA condemns itself, slinks away with tail between legs (not)

"BitTorrent has attracted the enmity of Hollywood. (....)[MPAA antipiracy chief John] Malcolm described the operators of the targeted servers as "Traffic cops connecting those who wish to steal a movie with those who have a copy of it."

"These people are parasites leeching off the creativity of others," said Malcolm. "They generate ad revenues by way of popup ads, banner ads... and they solicit online donations."

Hmmm.... sounds a lot like what the record labels and movie studios are doing themselves. by generating hype and trading lavish marketing campaigns, they make millions and millions of dollars from the creative work of others. Of course, content on its own isn't worth much without a distribution system-- the thing is, though, we just don't need that old distribution system anymore, now that we've got the likes of BitTorrent.